Cathie from Canada

"Do not go gentle into that good night.
Blog, blog against the dying of the light"

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I read the news today, oh boy

Well, I see New Brunswick has now closed the barn door. As a parent, I was so angry last week when I realized that people knew about how dangerous these vans are, they've known for years, yet instead of hiring a bus and a driver for these after school game treks, instead of billeting kids overnight, or instead of playing during the day on the weekends, the school let the coach drive along a slick, dark highway in the middle of the night in the middle of the winter -- all for the sake of saving a few bucks "for the children".

Of the 74 studies that started for the 12 antidepressants, 38 produced positive results for the drug. All but one of those studies were published.However, when it came to the 36 studies with negative or questionable results, as assessed by the FDA, only three were published and another 11 were turned around and written as if the drug had worked.

So are half of the research studies for new drugs actually poorly designed? Or were the researchers prevented from publishing by the terms of their research contracts? Either way, its outrageous.

So the United States is trying to get people spending money by sending them money to spend. Dare I say, doesn't that seem sorta socialist? So why don't they just provide health care -- that would save people hundreds of dollars every single month?

And looking at the Republican turnouts in the South Carolina primaries in 2000 and in 2008, a difference of something like 150,000 people, one could conclude that "none of the above" came in first this time.